be walking away from the negotiations that we've been engaged in here at the white house for a big deficit reduction and debt reduction package. >> narrator: bipartisanship was long buried. now there was open antagonism. >> when that collapsed and when that ended up in that terribly muddy compromise that nobody liked, i think that was the turn. i think at that point he and everybody around him decided, "this isn't working and we're not going to work this way." >> and the american people i think are fed up with political posturing and an inability for politicians to take responsible action as opposed to dodge their responsibilities. >> we've seen his approval ratings on the economy dip... >> narrator: three and half years after he came to washington on a promise of change... >> obama is under 50% approval rating... >> narrator: ... barack obama returned to the campaign trail himself changed. >> a difficult road ahead for the president... >> i think you see today a president obama with a thicker skin, more jaundiced eyes, has grown more skeptical, even cynical perhaps, about washington. >> n